Family pleads for community to come forward with tips about loved one's killer

A Piedmont Triad family, who is devastated following their loved one’s murder, is asking for help from the community to identify the killer of their family member.

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Updated: 5:29 PM EDT Mar 15, 2018

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WEBVTT WHAT CAUSED THE BRIDGE TOBACK AT HOME, A TRIAD FAMILY,WANDA: OUR STEVE KING JOINS USPUBLIC.STEVE: WINSTON-SALEM POLICEFORWARD WITH INFORMATION TO FIND>> I MISS MY SON.I MISS HIM.STEVE: THERON BRANNON’S FAMILY>> I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND ANDSTEVE: THAT MORNING, THERE WEREAN HOUR LATER, SOMEONE KNOCKEDTHERON ANSWERED, TELLING HIS MOMFIVE MINUTES LATER, THERE WAS>> WHEN THE DOOR OPENED, THERESTEVE: THAT’S WHEN SHE WENT TO>> HE HAD SAT DOWN IN THE CHAIRYOU COULD TELL HE WAS IN PAIN.HE KNEW HE COULDN’T HOLD ONSTEVE: THERON WAS 19 YEARS OLD.A WINSTON-SALEM PREP GRADUATE,HE ALWAYS HELPED HIS NEIGHBORSHE LOVED TO PLAY THE NATIVE>> HE WAS SO PROUD OF HERSTEVE: NOW, THE FAMILY IS HOPING>> I KNOW IN THE STREET WORLD,IT’S NOT SNITCHING BECAUSE WHATSTEVE: THERON’S FAMILY MOVEDHIS DAUGHTER IS NOW SIX.IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHOYOU CAN FIND BOTH OF THOSEREPORTING LIVE FROM THE

Family pleads for community to come forward with tips about loved one's killer

A Piedmont Triad family, who is devastated following their loved one’s murder, is asking for help from the community to identify the killer of their family member.

A Piedmont Triad family, who is devastated following their loved one’s murder, is asking for help from the community to identify the killer of their family member.

Nineteen-year-old Theron Thomas Brannon III was shot and killed in his home on Nancy Lane in Winston-Salem during the early morning hours of Christmas Eve in 2016.

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Theron Thomas Brannon III

According to Theron’s mother, Angela Brannon, there were gunshots outside close to their home at about 2 a.m. About an hour later, a child knocked on their door and talked to Theron Brannon. Theron’s mother then asked her son who was at the door.

“[Theron] said, ‘A kid in the neighborhood. He got jumped and he thinks he might have dropped his cell phone in our yard,’ so he was just letting us know that he was in the yard… So I said, ‘Okay do we need to help him?’ And [Theron] said, ‘No, he’s alright,’” said Angela Brannon.

“About five minutes later there was a knock on the door again, so in my mind I’m thinking, ‘Either the kid has given up and he couldn’t find anything and he’ll come back tomorrow or he found it and just let us know he found it and he’s leaving,’ so I didn’t think anything else because that made sense to me. I heard him get up and open the door and when the door opened there were gunshots so I had the little one in the bed with me and I picked him up and put him under the bed and went running to the kitchen to find out, because [Theron] opened the door and I needed to know what was going on and there were bullets just flying everywhere at that point. I didn’t care I just needed to see what was going on with my son.

“He had sat down in the chair and was grunting. You could tell he was in pain but he had on a dark shirt so I couldn’t see what was going on and I’m asking, ‘Trey, what’s going on? What’s going on? Talk to me. What’s going on? Tell me. What’s going on? What’s going on? He was just grunting because he was in pain.

“He knew he couldn’t hold on anymore so he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I love you’ and he took his last breath. At that point I was able to lift up his shirt and I saw one bullet in his heart and that’s where he had his tattoo for me,” Angela Brannon said.

Angela Brannon says her son was a wonderful man and a great father to his five-year-old daughter.

“He didn’t get to go with her for her first day of school or orientation or take her clothes shopping. That was his princess,” said Angela Brannon.

Theron Brannon with his daughter

“He was so proud of her because she was so smart just like he is.”

She says her son cared about everyone in the community, went out of his way to help the elderly and was a positive role model for young people.

“He would reach out to his age group and talk to them and he was advocating for, ‘Put the guns down, let’s have a talk and talk it out. Let’s not shoot each other, we’re killing each other, we’re killing each other. Let’s stop. Let’s talk about it. Let’s do this. And then he was murdered,” Angela Brannon said.

Theron Brannon had been working for a manufacturing company when he was killed. He was set to go to Germany to train at his company’s main plant and then obtain a major in mechanical engineering. He also had dreams of opening a mobile convenience store, which among other services, would deliver groceries to elderly people in the neighborhood. His family is currently working to make that vision a reality and hope to have the mobile convenience store in operation this summer. Theron Brannon also loved to draw and play the Native American Flute.

“He was somebody and he wanted to be more. He was deeply rooted in family values. I just don’t understand and that’s the hardest part,” said Angela Brannon.

“We don’t know why. That’s the main thing. We just don’t understand why. Why was it him? Why did they take him from his daughter? For what purpose? For what reason? What was the purpose? What was the reason? What was it supposed to do?”

Winston-Salem Police Department officials say it’s going to take tips from the community to identify Brannon’s killer.

“We are continuing to investigate all leads that we have and we have received leads in this case that are helping toward solving this case but we still need the community to step forward to provide us with additional information,” said Lt. Mike Cardwell with the Winston-Salem Police Department.

“Our detectives work long and hard on these cases but again our number one tool in these cases is information that we receive from the community.”

Now, Theron Brannon’s family is pleading for anyone in the community with information to come forward and give that information to law enforcement.

“Say something. We as the family need closure. His daughter needs to know. We need some closure, speak up,” Angela Brannon said.

“I know in the street world it’s considered snitching but in a situation like this it’s not. It’s not snitching because what it was was wrong. It was wrong. Be honorable. Have respect. What if it was your child? What if it was the father of your child?...You would want answers. A brother, a cousin, you would want answers. What they did was wrong.”

The Winston-Salem Police Department can be reached at (336) 773-7700 and City of Winston-Salem Crime Stoppers can be reached at (336) 727-2800.